The Place of the Free Elves
by Lemniscate35173
Summary: When Dobby finds Hermione putting out more hats, he explains just exactly why house elves stay with their masters. T for what I hope isn't too descriptive small descriptions of house elf abuse. One-shot


**I don't own Harry Potter. I apologize if I cause your eyes to bleed from the horror of my writing, but I'm not a professional at this.**

**T for not-blood-and guts-but-still-kind-of-descriptive house elf abuse.**

* * *

Hermione thought she was perfectly reasonable in her campaign to free the house elves. Of course, it had crossed her mind a few times that _maybe_ the house elves might not want to be free, but she had always ignored that tiny little voice in her head. The house elves were just brainwashed into thinking that way. At least, that was the answer that she gave everyone who asked her if the house elves wanted to be free in the first place. She knew, just knew, that the house elves wanted to be free, even if they didn't know it. She ignored the fact that the house elves insisted that they didn't want freedom, and avoided her because she kept trying to free them. To her, they were going to be free, even if it took forever to make it that way.

Hermione spent almost all of her free time on S.P.E.W., as her free the house elf campaign was called. She knitted hats to free the house elves, though they didn't exactly _look_ like hats. Her plan was to have the house elves pick them up and be free, and she stuck to it, even though none of the house elves had actually _become_ free from it yet. Still, the hats had been disappearing, and that had to count for something, right?

It was for this reason that Hermione was heading down to the common room at three AM. She had been up until midnight that night knitting more hat-like objects, so she had gone to bed late rather late that night. Then, she had had trouble sleeping. She slept fine until two in the morning, but then she had woken up suddenly and couldn't get back to sleep. She had then sat in her bed for half an hour trying to get back to sleep before she had given up and started reading. She finished the novel that she had started earlier, (Contrary to popular belief, she didn't just read huge dusty tomes full of obscure facts.) and went over to her desk to get one of the few fictional books she had found inside the Hogwarts library. Upon going to her desk, she had seen the last hat she had made that night sitting on top of her books. She had immediately felt the need to put it back in the common room so that one more elf could be free. Thus, Hermione was climbing down the steps that lead to the common at three in the morning.

The common room was empty except for one lone house elf. The elf was hunched over, working at cleaning an ink stain on one of the common rooms desks. Hermione caught sight of one of the elf's bright green socks and immediately recognized him. He was Dobby, the house elf who had tried to help Harry in his second year. "Dobby?" She called out softly. She always spoke softly late at night.

"Miss Mione?" Dobby asked. "What is yous doing up so late at night?"

"I had to put this hat out." Hermione replied. "Why are you the only one cleaning the tower? From what I can tell, house elves usually would work together to clean a big space like this in one night."

"Dobby is being the only one willing to clean the Gryffindor's towers now. The other elves, they be scared of you, Miss Mione. They 'fraid of being set free."

"But I thought you wanted to be free, Dobby?" Hermione asked.

"I's not be like other elves Miss Mione. I's is able to bond while being free. Other elves cannot do this."

"Couldn't you be able to teach them, Dobby? And why would you want to be bonded at all?"

"We is needing the bond to live, Miss Mione. We's need wizarding magic to survive, or else we wither up, and one day, Poof! No more house elf. We's be going gone. I's is not liking old master, so I is learning to not use bad master's magic. Dobby learned to use other wizard's magic, but never too much, not anything they would be using. It now be part of Dobby, but oh, did it hurt to learn. Several days Dobby be so close to fading." Dobby told.

"But surely the rest of the elves would be able to survive without wizard magic." Hermione said.

Dobby sighed. It was a strange sight to see a house elf sigh. It sounded wrong coming from a house elf's mouth. "Do you really want to see what it be like, Miss Mione?" Hermione nodded as eagerly as she could in her tired state. Dobby took her and with a pop they were gone from Hogwarts.

Hermione and Dobby landed in a dirty, grey room. The walls were worn down and the wallpaper was pealing from the walls. Worst of all, the room was filled with tired, beaten down house elves. Several of them had cuts and bruises on their bodies, and Hermione was sure that one of them had whip marks on her back. The one thing they all had in common was that they all had an item of clothing with them. Some wore shirts too big for them; other held giant hats that would never fit on their head, while others still wore socks that went over their thighs.

"What is this place, Dobby?" Hermione asked horrified.

Dobby answered solemnly, "This is the place where the free house elves go, Miss Mione"

A downtrodden house elf walked by them. His eyes were sunk in, even more so than normal house elves and he was so skinny that you could clearly see the outline of every bone in his body. "But- but why are they all like this?' Hermione whispered in terror and revulsion.

"They's have no more magic anymore, Miss Mione." Dobby replied. "We's get our magic from masters, and they's be having no master. They's be dying, Miss Mione."

"Why are they here? And where is here?" Hermione whispered once again as she watched an elderly house elf hobble past her.

"We's is in an abandoned mansion. Sometimes this place is moved, and we's clean it when we be leaving as way of pay." Dobby explained.

"Why don't they just clean it now? It's filthy." Hermione said as she looked at the pealing wall paper.

"Oh, it not be these elves who clean it. It be all us bonded. The free elves not be having enough strength to do it." Dobby replied.

"Why are they here?" Hermione repeated.

"This is where all free elves be going. When elves are becoming free, they's is not having anywhere to go. So they's is coming here. Sometimes, other elves who's is needing extra help are coming here and be asking for help in 'change for little bit of master's magic."

"Have- have I caused any elves to be- to be like this?" Hermione forced out.

"No, Miss Mione. Dobby is taking most of your hatty things, and Headmaster Dumbly Dore has taken back any elves who want it." Dobby answered.

"Take me back Dobby." Hermione said. Dobby grabbed her hand, and they were back at Hogwarts. Dobby popped them back into the common room.

"Goodnight, Miss Mione." Dobby said. "I's will be back later, but you should not be waking, no."

"Goodnight, and thank you Dobby," Hermione said sincerely. Dobby popped away.

As soon as Dobby's pop was done echoing off the walls of the common room, Hermione sprang into action. She took her box of S.P.E.W. badges and dumped them all into the fireplace. Then, she took her wand and pointed it at the fireplace. Flames sprung up. Hermione was too focused to notice that she had done her magic silently.

Then she climbed up the stairs and into her dorms. She wrenched open her trunk and tore through it, searching for each and every one. She then took the offending hats and threw them into one big pile. Her dorm mates were sleeping so soundly that they didn't even stir during Hermione's search.

Hermione took her pile of hats and threw them into the now blazing fire. She knew that she might regret it in the morning, but now she just couldn't bring herself to care, knowing that all that work had been condemning the very beings she was trying to save to such a horrible life. She watched the hats burn with satisfaction, the fire's flames matching that of her own anger.


End file.
